Language Curriculum design Language Curriculum development Syllabus design Overview of language Curriculum design

1. Chapter 1:
Overview of Language
Curriculum Design
 Lecturer: MR. VATH VARY
 Phone: 017 471 117
 Email: varyvath@gmail.com

2.  Defining Key Terms in the
Language Curriculum
 Parts of the Curriculum Design
Process
 Considering the Environment
 Discovering Needs
 Following Principles
 Goals
 Content and Sequencing
 Finding a Format and
Presenting Material
 Monitoring and Assessing
 Evaluating a Course
The purpose of
this chapter has
been to briefly
describe the
major parts
of the curriculum
design model.
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3. MR. VATH VARY

4. Curriculum Development
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5.  Analyzing environment (resources and
constraints):
 What social, economic, political,
educational, and institutional factors
impact the curriculum?
 Needs analysis:
What are my students’ abilities,
needs, and purposes for learning ?
How can I assess them so that I can
address them?
 Articulating principles:
What beliefs about learners and
learning, teaching, and subject
matter undergird the curriculum?
Discussion
Questions
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6.  Determining goals and objectives:
 What are the purposes and intended
outcomes (knowledge, skills, and disposition)
of the course? What will my students need to
do to achieve these goals?
 Organizing program content and sequencing:
 What should be taught or how is it organized and
sequenced and in ways that learners can attain the
goals? (What will I include in my syllabus?)
 Deciding Program Format and Presentation:
 How will I teach the course? How will the content
and materials be presented?
 Monitoring and assessing:
 How will I monitor and assess what students have
learned?
 Evaluation:
 How will I assess/ evaluate the effectiveness of
the course?
Discussion
Questions
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7. Environment (Situation,
Context and Constraint)
analysis
involves considering the factors
of the situation in which the
course will be used and
determining how the course
should take account of them.
The importance of environment
analysis is that it makes sure that
the course will really be suitable,
practical, and realistic.
Considering
the
Environment
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8.  the small amount of time
available for the course
 the large size of the classes
 the wide range of proficiency in
the class
 the immediate survival needs of
the learners
 the lack of appropriate reading
materials
 the teachers’ lack of experience
and training
 the learners’ use of the first
language in the classroom
 the need for the learners to be
more autonomous.
• Choose three factors
which will have the
strongest effect on the
design of your course.
• Rank these three from
the factor which will
most determine what
you should do to the
one which has the least
influence of the three.
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9. Here are some of the top factors decided
on by several teachers designing different courses for
different learners.
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10. MR. VATH VARY
There are many examples of unsuccessful curriculum design
where the background questions were not considered. Here are
some examples.

11.  A large amount of group
work.
 Use of special large class
techniques like oral
reproduction, black-board
reproduction, the pyramid
procedure involving the
individual-pair-group-class
sequence (Nation and
Newton, 2009).
 Independent work or
individualised tasks.
• “the large size
of the class”
could have the
following
effects on the
curriculum
design.
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12. MR. VATH VARY
Environment (Situation,
Context and
Constraint) analysis
Learners:
age, proficiency levels,
need, interests, learning
styles, etc.
Teachers:
levels of training and
experience, proficiency,
motivation and
commitment, preferred
teaching styles, teaching
philosophy, etc.
teaching situation:
resources and facilities–
materials, worksheet,
coursebooks, realia,
technology and internet,
class size, CD/Audio, time,
assessment practice,
library, etc.

13. Discovering Needs
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Types of Needs
(Hutchinson and Waters , 1987)
Necessities:
what the learner has to
know to function
effectively;
Lacks:
what the learner
knows and does not
know already;
Wants:
what the learners
think they need.
act as the learning goals of the course

14. Discovering Needs
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• Tests, observation, and interview,
previous performance, consulting
with employers, teachers and others
involved, and collecting data:
textbooks and manuals
Means of
gathering
needs data:
• is a realistic list of language,
ideas or skill items:
• considering the present
proficiency, future needs &
wants of the learners.
The result of
needs analysis

15. Following
Principles
 Principles represent theories or beliefs
about language, learners and learning.
 guide decisions about what and how students
will learn and why (Graves, 2022).
 guides the choice of what to teach and how to
sequence it.
 guides the presentation of items to be learned
 The principles derived from this research
include the importance of:
 repetition and thoughtful processing of
material,
 individual differences and learning style,
 and learner attitudes and motivation.
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16. EXAMPLES A surprisingly neglected principle
in many courses is the
comprehensible input principle
which says that at least one
quarter of the total course time
should involve engaging input at
the right level for the learner.
Extensive reading programme
making use of graded readers.
A substantial body of research
evidence claims extensive reading
benefits language learners
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17. Goals Goals
involves making decisions on
why a course is being taught
and what the learners need to
get from it.
Having a clear statement of goals is
important for:
determining the content of the course,
deciding on the focus in presentation,
 and guiding assessment.
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18. Examples of Goals
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• Goals can be expressed in general terms and be
given more detail when considering the content of the
course.

19. Examples of Goals
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20. Content and Sequencing
Content and Sequencing
involve making decisions on
the items to
learn in a course
The which order
of items is
needed earlier
The content of language courses includes:
language items, ideas, skills, tasks and strategies that
meet the goals of the course
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21. Content and
Sequencing
 It is important for the curriculum
designer to keep some check on
vocabulary, grammar, and discourse
to make sure that important items
are being covered and repeated.
Consideration of content make
sure that:
 there is something useful for the learners to
learn
 they are getting the best return for learning
in the course,
 they are covering all the things necessary
for a balanced knowledge of language
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22. Content and Sequencing
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Frequency lists of
language items and
skills
used to check or
determine the content
content of a course, as
as well as
used to exclude those
those that should not
not be there
• One way to provide a systematic and well-researched basis
for a course is to make use of frequency lists and other lists
of language items or skills.

23. Content and
Sequencing
Use Frequency Lists:
 Frequency-based Vocabulary lists:
 (https://www.eapfoundation.com/vocab/wordlist
s/)
 https://www.eapfoundation.com/vocab/general/
gsl/
 https://www.eapfoundation.com/vocab/academi
c/
 Frequency Lists of verb forms and verb
groups:
These contain items such as simple past,
present continuous, verb + to + stem (where the
stem is dominant) going to + stem, and can +
stem (ability) along with information about their
frequency of occurrence, mainly in written text.
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24. Content and
Sequencing
Lists of functions and topics
 Selection of items must be based on perceived need, not
frequency-based.
 The most useful of the available lists are van Ek and
Alexander (1980) and Council of Europe (2001). (Take a
look at the next slide)
 Lists of subskills and strategies
 include the subskills of listening, speaking, reading and
writing, and language coping and learning strategies.
 There are lists of tasks, topics, and themes that curriculum
designers can refer to (Munby, 1978; Prabhu, 1987; van
Ek and Alexander, 1980),
 but it is better for curriculum designers to develop
their own lists, taking account of the background
factors of their learners and their needs.
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25. Council of Europe
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26. Finding a Format and
Presenting Material
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Presentation
the use of suitable
teaching techniques
techniques and
procedures
the need to be
put together in
lessons.
• The material in a course needs to be presented to learners in a form that
will help learning.
• It can be argued that the first presentation of an item is not as important
as the later repetitions of that item. It is through repeated meetings that
items are enriched and established.

27. Monitoring and
Assessing
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• Involve observing
learning, testing
the results of
learning, and
providing feedback
to the learners
about their
progress.

28. Monitoring
and
Assessing
Monitoring involves:
using observation checklists and
report forms and getting learners to:
keep diaries and learning logs,
collect samples of their work in
folders,
and talk about their learning.
Assessing involves the use of tests.
Diagnostic, Placement, Proficiency, Short-
term Achievement, & Achievement Tests,
Projects, etc.
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29. Monitoring
and
Assessing
Five basic purposes of test:
To Measure proficiency
To diagnose specific strengths and
weaknesses (gaps)
To place students in a course or program
To assess students’ progress
at the end of each lesson or at the end of
a group of lessons.
To assess students’ achievement
at the end of a course and perhaps
halfway in a course or program
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30. Evaluating a
Course
Evaluation involves:
looking at every aspect of a course
to judge if the course is adequate
and where it needs improvement
 Purposes of an evaluation of a course
are as follows:
 to continue or discontinue the course
 to bring about improvements in the course.
 Responsible curriculum design
includes ongoing evaluation of the
course.
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31. Evaluating
a Course
What
determines a
good course?
(1) attracts
a lot of
students
(2)
makes a lot
of money
satisfies the
(3) learners,
(4) teachers
and (5)
sponsors
Desired results
(6) high scores in an
external test, (7)
improving outcomes,
(8) methods, &
(9) recognized by
local and international
community
(10)
follows
accepted
principles of
curriculum
design.
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Assessment: a useful source of data about
the effectiveness of a course

32. • Examine the environment
• Assess needs
• Decide on principles
• Set goals, and choose and
sequence content
• Design the lesson format
• Include assessment
procedures
Summary
of the Steps
The aims of curriculum design are to make a course
that has useful goals, that achieves its goals, that
satisfies its users, and that does all this in an efficient
way.
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33. Work in group
and Discuss
this case study
for 15 minutes
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34. MR. VATH VARY
• https://frenchteachernet.blogspot.com/2019/09/curriculum-planning-in-mfl.html